Autonomous drone delivery startup Manna plots major US expansion

What did Manna actually announce?

Manna, an Irish drone delivery startup, is building a US operations and manufacturing base in Tulsa, Oklahoma, expected to employ around 1,000 people over the next several years, with manufacturing starting in about a year. It follows a $50 million Series B raised in April 2026, led by ARK Invest, taking Manna's total funding to $110 million.

Manna plans to build up to 40 drone delivery bases across the US and is assessing six further cities to enter by the end of 2027. The company has already completed more than 250,000 regulated commercial drone flights across Ireland, Finland and Texas, with delivery times under three minutes and a reported customer satisfaction score (Net Promoter Score) of 86.

Why should a UK small business owner care about a drone startup in Oklahoma?

Because the regulatory groundwork for this in the UK is already being laid, and last mile delivery is about to get a lot more competitive for anyone who takes online orders. This is not a US only story.

From 1 January 2026, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport introduced a refreshed drone regulatory framework, and the CAA's Future of Flight roadmap is working towards routine beyond visual line of sight commercial delivery operations, delivered in stages through to 2027. Separately, Amazon has already been given CAA approval to begin drone parcel deliveries in the UK during 2026, starting in the north of England. The direction of travel is clear even if the timeline for most towns is still a few years out.

Does this mean I need a drone delivery plan right now?

No. For the vast majority of local businesses, that is 2028 thinking, not 2026 thinking. What matters today is the underlying trend Manna represents: delivery and fulfilment are becoming faster, more automated and more customer expectation driven, and that shift is already hitting your business through channels you use every day.

A restaurant in Manchester that Braynex Services worked with saw a 34% increase in online orders within four weeks simply by replacing a PDF menu with a live web menu. Customers already expect speed and simplicity online. Drone delivery is an extreme version of a trend that is already reshaping ordinary expectations around ordering, booking and follow up.

What is the real lesson for small businesses in this story?

The real lesson is about infrastructure ownership, not drones. Manna is investing $50 million and building its own delivery bases and its own fleet because owning the infrastructure that touches the customer is what lets you control speed, cost and experience at scale. Most local businesses do the opposite: they rent someone else's platform for the exact moment they meet the customer.

If Fresha, Booksy, Yell or a Facebook page changes its algorithm, pricing or terms tomorrow, your booking flow or your visibility can disappear overnight. One nail salon Braynex Services worked with was paying Fresha around £1,800 a month in commission. Moving to its own booking system at £35 a month saved roughly £21,000 a year, and the business kept its customer data instead of renting access to it.

What should I actually do about this development?

Treat it as a prompt to audit how much of your customer facing infrastructure you actually own, and fix the weakest link first.

• Check your Google Business Profile is verified and fully optimised. A Leeds salon went from no online presence to more than 40 monthly calls from Google Maps within three weeks of doing just this.
• Move bookings off high commission platforms where possible. Compare what you pay in commission against a flat monthly fee for your own system.
• Replace static or PDF menus, price lists and Linktree pages with a real website. A local baker with 800 Facebook followers reached 120 monthly organic visitors within six weeks of launching one.
• Check whether AI assistants recommend you. Ask ChatGPT or Gemini "who is the best [your trade] near [your town]" and see if you appear. If not, your Google Business Profile and website content need work, because this is becoming the new local search.

Braynex Services' view

Manna's expansion is a useful signal, not a threat. It confirms that whoever owns the infrastructure between a business and its customer, whether that is a delivery fleet, a booking system or a website, holds the power in that relationship. Rented platforms feel convenient until the terms change, the fees rise or the account gets suspended, and by then you have already lost the customer data that took years to build.

Most local businesses lose money in places they cannot see: missed calls, platform commissions quietly eating margin, and old customer lists that are never followed up. You do not need a drone fleet to fix that. You need to own your website, your bookings and your data, the same way Manna is choosing to own its own delivery infrastructure rather than lease someone else's.

If you want a clear picture of where your business is leaking enquiries or paying too much to rent platforms you do not control, Braynex Services offers a free audit at braynexservices.com.